REX RAY
On View: September 12, 2026 to October 31, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, from 5-7pm
Black Mast, 2014
Pigment print
30 x 42 inches
No. 0962, 2003
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
11.75 × 16 inches
Lopadium 2, year
Collage with media over canvas
30 x 30 inches
Real Tears, 2000
Pigment print
34 × 46 inches
Edition of 25
No. 3399, 2001
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
20 × 30 inches
No 3835, 2013
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
12 x 16 inches
No 2920, 2013
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
26 x 32 inches
Alba, 2012
Pigment print
30.25 × 46.50 inches
No 3771, 2013
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
16 x 24 inches
Lobaria II, 2014
Pigment print
30 x 41.25 inches
No. 1443, 2007
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
15.75 × 24 inches
Cladinina, 2012
Pigment print
60 x 27.50 inches
No. 2562, 2007
Painted, cut and pasted paper on wood panel with resin
15.75 × 15.75 inches
Exhibition Views
About the Exhibition
For the fall 2026 exhibition season, Themes+Projects gallery partners with Gallery 16 to celebrate the enduring legacy of Bay Area art legend REX RAY. Recognized for his bold color juxtapositions, complex layering of textures and forms, and distinctive visual beauty, the exhibition surveys collages on canvas, resin panels, and pigment prints created between 2000 and 2014 before his untimely passing in 2015.
Ray was an important figure in the Bay Area art community whose influence extended across painting, collage, graphic design, and printmaking. Throughout his career, he developed a distinctive visual language at the intersection of fine art and graphic design that became widely recognizable through both his gallery exhibitions and commercial collaborations with musicians, designers, and cultural institutions.
This exhibition marks a full-circle moment for Themes+Projects as we return to the work of an artist we first exhibited during the gallery's formative Palo Alto era in 2002. Our REX RAY exhibition is part of an ongoing celebration of Ray's work, coinciding with his retrospective on view at the Monterey Museum of Art (August 2026–January 2027) and the re-release of his book, We Are All Light (second edition), published by Gallery 16. Together, these exhibitions and publications offer an opportunity to revisit Ray's work and rediscover his lasting contribution to Bay Area visual culture.
Click here to purchase Rex Ray books!
About the Artist
Rex Ray (1956–2015) was a San Francisco-based artist and graphic designer whose multidisciplinary practice encompassed painting, collage, and printmaking. Ray earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1988 and went on to exhibit extensively throughout the United States. His work was presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Akron Museum, McNay Art Museum, and GLBT History Museum. His longstanding relationship with Gallery 16 began in the 1990s and continued throughout his career. Ray's work is recognized for its distinctive synthesis of fine art and graphic design, characterized by bold color, geometric and organic forms, pattern, and intricate layering.